AT&T has outlined plans to expand its fiber joint venture with Gigapower, as the carrier wants to expand its fiber footprint beyond the initial 1.5 million locations announced in December 2022.

According to AT&T, the Gigapower expansion could also include growth in its existing locations, plus the addition of new geographies.

When initially formed in 2022, the JV was established to focus on customers outside of AT&T’s traditional 21-state wireline service footprint.

The JV provides fiber broadband services to Internet service providers and businesses across parts of the US.

"AT&T is America’s largest and leading fiber provider,” claims John Stankey, chief executive officer, AT&T.

The carrier currently serves more than eight million fiber customers.

By next year, AT&T aims to pass 30 million-plus consumer and business locations in its traditional service areas.

“With our organic fiber build, we’re seeing improving returns as we expand our network. In new service areas, Gigapower is ramping well, and we’re targeting additional geographies for growth with the joint venture and other commercial open-access agreements," added Stankey.

"Customers tell us they want a high-performance wireless and broadband experience from a single provider, and AT&T is best positioned to serve this growing need."

To support AT&T's plans to expand its fiber reach across the US, the carrier has struck four new agreements with commercial open-access providers: Boldyn Networks, wholesale fiber developer and operator, Digital Infrastructure Group, PRIME FiBER, and Ubiquity.

The carrier has previously paired with Boldyn to modernize communications at military bases, including delivering fiber, FirstNet, and 5G communications.

PRIME FiBER is a newly established commercial open-access fiber infrastructure provider serving ISPs and will initially build in Florida, while Ubiquity is set to provide access to AT&T across its multi-state footprint and will also build exclusive greenfield areas for AT&T, starting in Minnesota.

AT&T noted that the agreements will provide the carrier with wholesale access to these fiber broadband networks, enabling it to offer both AT&T Fiber and 5G wireless services to more customers.

AT&T's announcement comes a week after rival Verizon confirmed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications.

T-Mobile has also outlined its own fiber ambitions, first through the acquisition of Lumos Networks as part of a joint venture (JV) with EQT Infrastructure in April. Then in July, the company agreed to set up a JV with investment firm KKR to acquire fiber Internet service provider Metronet.